CVCSF welcomes 3 new directors

The ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation (CVCSF) has welcomed three new members to its board of directors, Kevin McElhinney, Lisa Foley and Kim Varney Chandler.

Although he makes his home in Brattleboro, Vt., McElhinney has had a long presence in business and community in the ConVal area. A graduate of Harvard with a BA in government, he has been the manager of the Lake Sunapee Bank branch in Peterborough since August 2008. McElhinney also is a director of the River Center, Windy Row Learning Center, and the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, and he is a trustee of Monadnock Music and a member of the Monadnock Rotary Club.

Foley knows well the costs and sacrifices required these days to get a college education — her daughter just started at the University of Virginia this fall. But that’s not the only asset Foley brings to the CVCSF. A graduate of the University of Maine with a BA in finance, she worked for eight years as manager for cost analysis at International Paper, Inc., before moving with her husband Patrick and their two daughters to Peterborough in 1996. When both her daughters were in school, Foley went back herself and got a master’s of education from Antioch University.

Chandler is the new director of guidance at ConVal High School, replacing Joe Hayes, who retired at the end of June. Chandler’s role is critical in organizing the CVCSF scholarship awardee selection process, which begins around Thanksgiving and culminates just before graduation.

The CVCSF is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all-volunteer chapter of Dollars for Scholars supported by tax-deductible donations that awards financial help and future hope to ConVal graduates as they pursue post-secondary education in the face of extraordinary challenges.